A Nifty! from the Periphery today, and a bit of a walk down memory lane. Pet classes are nothing new, and pretty much every MMO since Ultima Online has offered some mechanism whereby an Adventurer (of any epoch) need not have to rely on their own strength alone. From EQ's Magician and Necromancer, through AO's Metaphysicist, (Which wins a special Nifty! mention for being the single most abstract MMO Class Concept EVER! "I think, therefore I am...uber!"), Bureaucrat and Engineer, right up to Wow's Hunter and Warlock, CoV's Mastermind and LotR's Captain; almost all MMOs have something that'll let you form a team of two or more, without having to go near another player. Its no surprise that these are often also the good solo classes.
The potency of the pet(s) varies widely. Mostly it's a kind of floating extra weapon, and between the two of you, you make up the equivalent of a single other-class player. Nowhere in my travels in the online realm had I come across a pet class with the sheer power of this week's Nifty! mention:
Nifty! #3: Neocron 2's Rigger Profession
I dabbled in Neocron 2: Beyond Dome of York some years back, during my first free-trial smorgasbord run, and found it to be a fascinating, if somewhat marginalised 'other' MMO. You can find those writeups here and here, and I believe it might have been my first ever proper Operation Cheapseats victim. I expect a fair bit has changed in Neocron since I wrote those though, so don't use them as a comprehensive guide or anything! It seemed a very well-crafted, but much under-subscribed Sci-Fi MMO, and a solid and dark alternative to Anarchy Online, at the time.
One thing that immediately made it stand out from the rest was it's innovative FPS-style controls - previously unheard of in the traditionally hot-key and auto-attack based MMO genre of the time. You had to aim! To my knowledge, only Planetside (which is not really an MMO, but a larger kind of lan-match FPS game), and Tabula Rasa (which only came out a few moths a go!) do anything remotely similar. This almost warrants a Nifty! of it's own, I'd say, but I do want to be a little more specific in these pieces.
So everyone had to aim; to use FPS skills to make progress in an MMORPG, but one class got something even more unexpected. The Rigger, in Neocron, is a class who makes their living with by the use of the unmanned drone robots. Unique to their class, these bundles of joy resemble basketball sized spikey black and red mini...well, spaceships is the nearest, I'd say. The Rigger finds some out of the way spot to hide, then launches one from inventory.
At this point, the Rigger has an out of body experience, and becomes the drone. The drone can hover up to about 10ft off the ground, and has a very peculiar flight-model, capable of very long and fast sweeps, while able to turn very rapidly on it's own axis, making them capable of the most devastatingly elegant fly-by shootings. When hitting an inclined plane fast enough head on, their momentum would be deflected upward almost without loss, giving them the ability to launch themselves much higher into the air than the basic 10ft, and allowing them to do all manner of graceful stunts, and long sweeping glides back down, firing all the way.
They had a built-in ammo supply, possibly some kind of shielding/armour (I forget exactly), but could only operate a set distance away from the unconscious Rigger. When the ammo or health was low, provided it wasn't destroyed outright, the Rigger can simply land the thing and snap back into themselves, and then just jog over to the drone, pick it up, tweak it a bit, and either launch it once more, or head off on their merry way.
I loved it. The unique and unexpected way that the drones handled was an absolute joy to play, and like nothing I'd ever seen in an MMO before, or indeed, since. The closest other experience I'd ever come across in general gaming, was the mind-mangling zero-G hijinks of Interplay's Descent, which I also enjoyed immensely.
(By the way, I highly recommend Mobygames as a resource for the gaming antiquarian- the site is the IMDB.com of Computer Games!)
The other comparison I reached during my write up, was that of Falconry. I'm no Falconeer, but it seemed a very appropriate metaphor and I have fond memories of standing on the roof of a remote and ruined red-brick vehicle depot of some sort, comatose in the light of dusk and the game's Steve Roach soundtrack going, as my technological 'hawk' of a laser-mounted combat drone swooped about the valley below, dispensing majestically elegant death and destruction on the local fauna, making long powerful swoops and gimballing in-flight to catch giant mutant mosquitos on the wing with red burning light. I could almost imagine the raised arm and big glove! I felt...powerful, and, unlike all too many MMO experiences of my life, skilful in my competency with this bizarre way to play. It was about as far from a hotkey-mashing stat-balancing exercise as it is possible to get, and still be in an MMO I think.
As a gameplay style it had it's weaknesses, mind you. For a start, the drone can't loot, and by the time you've landed it, returned to your real body and run back to the battle site, the goodies have long since faded, making the Rigger profession one of almost perpetual poverty. Also, you yourself, are utterly defenceless when attacked, making the finding of a good safe launch-spot a tricky task. This is especially telling in the very dominant PvP aspect of Neocron, and while your end-game drones might be feared, if they find you...it's over very quickly. Rigging also affects the dynamic of basic grouping quite badly too. In most groups, in most games, you all move forward together, dealing with each challenge as it comes. Imagine having one member of the team who, for all intents and purposes, has to remain afk a lot, and then you have to wait a lot for them to periodically catch up. (And preferably, dish them out some of your loot as well.) It'd take a very patient and understand pick-up group, something in general short supply these days, to put up with the stop-start nature of the Rigger's day to day.
But as both a unique kind of game in it's own right, and as a wider example of how pet classes could be, the Rigger stands alone as something quite special. Why be an indifferent ranged fighter, who also has an attached melee DPS 'attack' in a wolf's clothing, when you could be the pet, and bring all it's ferocity to bear yourself? I vaguely remember Everquest had something slightly similar, the 'Eye of Zomm' spell, which would do the same out-of-body experience, but that was just a floating eyeball you could use to look around corners without triggering aggro. Planetside has the NC's Phoenix camera-guided missiles, but again, similar only in that it takes you out of yourself. The missile is 'nudged', rather than flown, and the whole flight is over in less than ten seconds usually. Neither offers the quite the same degree of complexity to the experience however, and to my knowledge, Nerocron's Rigger and Drones stand alone. I'm not sure it would work in a game that didn't already have FPS shooting, but perhaps Tabula Rasa might learn a thing or two from it; who knows?
So, for offering a way to play an MMO quite unlike any other, Neocron's Rigger Profession: Nifty!
I didn't sign up at the end of my trial, partly because I wanted to see other games, and partly because Neocron 2, for all its depth of world and quirky interesting features, was a pretty empty game, and those players left were a less than welcoming sort. This was perhaps due to the rather harsh implementation of PvP used; a one-way and permanent opt-in choice, required for many of the missions, coupled with FFA targets and no level limit protection, which was all a bit Rallos Zek for my tastes. I enjoyed the Rigger and the city of Neocron itself so much though, that I expect I'll try to swing another free trial some day soon.
The last data SirBruce has for the title puts it at about 5,000 subscribers in July 06, making it a definite niche game. It is still going though, and seems to be offering free trials, so if you do want a look a Riggers yourself, or indeed, just see a different kind of take on The Elusive Sci Fi MMO, here's the link:
Neocron Evolution 2.2
The Evolution bit is, I think, in reference to a recent and fairly substantial graphics upgrade, which a lot of the Elder Statesmen of MMOs seem to be doing lately. Worth a look, if only to see what the hell I'm going on about!